


Red

by magicalpaganini (heartsflush)



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Angst Without A Happy Ending hahahaha, Gen, I cried while writing this, Red Plague (The Arcana), very short and very sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 14:13:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15341565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsflush/pseuds/magicalpaganini
Summary: Contains spoilers for Book XIII - Death.





	Red

**Author's Note:**

> look i couldn't think of a good summary even though i tried for a solid five minutes
> 
> i cried! while writing this! so take it!
> 
> dw i'm drafting fluff to recover from it

No.

It’s impossible.

Alexis stared back at themselves in the mirror, their eyes tainted with sickening red.

How?

They rubbed at their eyes, then looked. Still there. They rubbed harder. Still there. They almost tore their eyes out of their sockets trying to get it out.

Still there.

A tear slid down their cheek.

“I don’t want to die.”

 

They sat at their desk, papers crumpled around them and ink spilled everywhere. They knew they had to tell someone,  _ anyone, _ but they couldn’t find the words.

Not even for him.

Alexis dipped the pen in the inkwell again, smoothing out a piece of paper to write on. They managed the first few letters of his name; the G, the I, the R. 

Tears soon began to stain the paper. Perhaps Alexis was seeing things, but they swore their tears were tinted red. 

Frustrated, they pushed everything off the desk and laid their head on it, sobbing.

How do you tell someone that you’re going to die?

A hacking cough wracked their frame.

They couldn’t. 

 

The water was calm that day.

Their face covered by a cloak, they stepped onto a boat, barely able to breathe with the sheer amount of people around them. As the boat began to move, they looked over the edge. The wake moved swiftly, disturbing the water around it, but they could still see their eyes.

Red.

Sickening.

Reminding them that they didn’t have the courage to tell anyone they were dying.

They lay their hand in the water, relishing the sensation of its movement. When a tear fell from their face to join the waters below, they barely registered that they were crying.

 

The sun was setting when they were herded off the boat and into the crematorium. 

They couldn’t be sure, but they felt that the sun had set fully when they were led to their chamber. 

The attendant said nothing as they locked Alexis in, the bars’ metallic clang ringing in the magician’s ears. Silently, the attendant withdrew, and Alexis closed their eyes.

“Girard...I’m sorry.”

Behind their eyelids, they saw a spark.

Then a flash of red.

They barely had time to feel the heat of the flames before everything went black.


End file.
